Only Reliable Narrators


May 12th – June 9th  2022

Jenna Bliss, Andrew Davis, Zahra Komeylian,
Jennifer Laiwint, Erdem Taşdelen

Curated by Miles Rufelds

Video documentation by Miles Rufelds can be seen here.













Only Reliable Narrators contemplates the critical ways that narratives and stories work to structure collective ideas of truth, history, power, science, self, and hope. In the artists’ works, fictitious personae, imaginary archetypes, and speculative histories guide audiences towards familiar, affective truths, while factual records and normative myths break down under the demands of their presumed authority. The works employ a range of experimental narrative strategies, alternately playing with the line between fact and fiction, and interrogating the norms governing the distinction at its base.

Photo documentation by Alison Postma and Miles Rufelds







Erdem Taşdelen, Swing for Departure (from the series Unmade Films), 2022. Inkjet printed movie poster, 31.25" x 44".


   
Erdem Taşdelen, Wounded in Three Acts (from the series Unmade Films), 2022. Inkjet printed movie poster, 31.25" x 44".


   
Erdem Taşdelen, Into a Hollow Sky (from the series Unmade Films), 2022. Inkjet printed movie poster, 31.25" x 44".



    
Zahra Komeylian, Two Passages, 2020. excerpt. Canadian Art Winter Issue (print)



Zahra Komeylian, Milieu, 2022. Montauk Air Force Station (Camp Hero) military facility camouflaged as church; altered image on acetate   /  disposable frame mat    /   paper   /  gifted print catalog, Do You Understand What I’m Saying, Sir?, Blanco   /
silk threads  



Zahra Komeylian, strata, 2022. declassified CIA document, 1964 Congressional Record on fate of inactive defense facilities, including Camp Hero, Montauk, and the state of the economy   /  altered document on acetate   /   repurposed frame, inverted 



Zahra Komeylian, things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, 2022. image of Montauk Lighthouse and North Atlantic Ocean taken from Camp Hero; image of Camp Hero Radar Station taken from shore, altered images on acetate, Montauk Library Archive  /  repurposed frame, inverted  




Zahra Komeylian, Raw Silk and Uncut Wood, 2022.
Spread, right to left:
bubble wrap   /  matrimonial candlestick   /   print catalog of Ana Mendieta's Creek (1974)   /    colour study of Chesapeake Bay algal blooms (2020) sourced from aerial drone images   /   clay impression of artist’s hand  /   Father Stories by John Edgar Wideman (excerpt)   /   wax impression on found metal   /   you and I sit on the shoulders of a sphynx and watch the Gods and all the colours are joyful (2022), sketchbook study   /   Translated excerpt of Reza Baraheni’s poem, Esmail, colour pencil on paper   /   Untitled: on rupture (2020), pen on paper  /  burial cloth strip   /   disassembled collage components   /   repurposed frame, inverted (2015)   /   drywall  /   sunbleached hibiscus flower (2021)   /   planar in float, hover, and wave (2021), colour pencil on paper   /    drawing on vomit bag (2020), pen on disposable vomit bag   /   glass  /   Book of Symbols entry on Swimming  /  Descent (2021) colour pencil on paper   /  Untitled (2021), colour pencil on paper  /  August 30/21 11:30PM (2021), colour pencil on paper    /   People like that are the Only People Here by Lorrie Moore (excerpt)   /   glassine   



    
     
Zahra Komeylian, diptych over blue, 2022. Montauk US Air Force military facilities camouflaged as residential building and church, altered images on acetate, vellum  



Zahra Komeylian, Diptych: Planar in Major Inversion (2021): tree in water pool (2021); and Cusp (2021), colour pencil on paper in repurposed, inverted frames    



Zahra Komeylian, Milieu, 2022. collapsed drywall ephemera of durational work, nothing is a hole in Its own skin (2020)   /    
painter’s tape   /   glass   /   digital renders of Komeylian Montauk Lighthouse miniature   /  Euro-colonial chromatograph used to measure the blueness of the sky, print catalog Almanac for the Beyond  /  photocopy of Biography of the Artist (circa 1995) accompanying obtained Komeylian miniature Lighthouse sculptures    /   water tower at Montauk Air Force Station, Montauk Library Archive  /  bubble wrap   /   


    
Erdem Taşdelen, The Characters: Epilogue 1, 2018-2021. Audio installation with five speakers and programmed spotlights. 00:28:06. Courtesy of the artist.
Cast: Blythe Haynes as The Suspicious One, Sara Jaffri as The Late Learner, Scott Pickett as The Coward, Felicia Valenti as The Slanderer, and Carol-Anne Day as The Rumour-Monger.



Andrew Davis, Cyclopes Plaza, 2021. HD video with sound, 00:14:47



Jennifer Laiwint, The Audition, 2022. HD video with sound, 00:45:57

Research, Writing and Production Assistance: Faisal Karadsheh
Production Assistance: Agathe Salzmann
Assistant Cinematography: Agathe Salzmann and Christina Dovolis

The Auditioners

Aashil Nagori
Agathe Salzmann
Bana B
Christine Sawka Fraser
Dan Rosen
Danish Gupta
Darius Zee
Dave thorne
Edison Le
Jimmy Nguyen
Manal Khan
Marisol D’andrea
Racha Soliman
Sahil Arora
Tim Theodore
Yasir Khan



Jenna Bliss, Professional witnesses, 2021. HD video with sound, 00:56:32

commissioned by Stadtgalerie Bern.

Cast & Crew:

Janitor: Philip Moore
Delivery Man: William Urina Serna
Office Worker: Nadia Sepenswol
EMT: Dee Beasnael
Retired FDNY: Alexander Carney
Student: Soraïa Scicchitano
Artist: Tavish Miller
Wall Street Guy: George Fearing

Director of Photography: Sam Russell
Assistant Director: Marlon Diaz
Music: Hazel Rigby
Translation: Marlon Diaz





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